End of a Lineup: No More Nexus Devices From Now?

If this report by Android Central is to go by, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P would be the last of the Nexus lineup that began with Nexus One that HTC manufactured. Starting this year, the Nexus lineup of phones will be sold under a new brand, most likely closely intact with Google’s name. So far, all the leaks of the upcoming Nexus devices, refer the phones as Nexus, but looks like by the time they end up n the market, they would be honing a new title. Seems like a strange coincidence that when Google started the Nexus lineup, they partnered with HTC and with the new lineup coming this year, HTC is once again the preferred partner for Android.

If you look back, this move should not be all that surprising, afterall, Google did release its latest tablet under the name, Google Pixel-C rather than calling it a Nexus tablet, unlike the Nexus 7, 9, 10 that launched earlier. If that is any indication, then Google had decided long ago to do away with the Nexus name and tie devices closer to Google as it attempts to take on the flagship phone from a certain giant in Cupertino. Traditionally, Nexus phones are looked at phones that Google on with a preferred OEM partner, with partner branding just as much relevant and prominent. This year, there are already rumors that the upcoming devices, will not bear an OEM branding.

The change is not just coming to the name, as the upcoming devices by HTC are also expected to come with a new layer of software, most likely to be a re-engineered, Google Assistant on top of the vanilla Android in order to differentiate the phone. It is not clear what the new series of devices woul dbe called, but whatever it will be, if the move does materialise, will be the biggest jump in the way Google looks at Android in the recent few years. Who is to say that if the new strategy works, we will not have a self manufactured Google smartphone, taking on the iPhone at the game that currently Tim Cook’s company excels at.

When not admiring flying metallic birds and the science behind them, Arpit is seen scribbling with his keyboard, voicing an opinion or two about personal technology. He is currently using a Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s Plus as his mobile devices.